Celebrities Who Regret Doing Nude, Sex Scenes: Quotes From Kate Winslet to Jamie Dornan

Jamie Dornan

“A part of me still can’t really believe I did those films,” Dornan told The Sun in January 2018 of his role as Christian Grey in the Fifty Shades of Grey franchise. “There’s an element in me that’s going, ‘Why did they make movies out of those books?’” Despite going nude throughout the sexy film series, the Irish actor isn’t confident when exposed. “I never feel sexy, I just don’t,” he said. “Usually if I am in any way naked, I feel awkward and exposed. I honestly am not someone who feels sexy.”

The following month, Dornan told ELLE that despite portraying a BDSM aficionado, he purposely asked not to go full frontal in the third film, Fifty Shades Freed. “I don’t know if I said I wouldn’t,” he told the publication in February 2018. “You see my arse quite a lot. That doesn’t really bother me. You see a lot of Dakota [Johnson]’s tits. I would show my tits if I had them. I just thought we don’t need to be flashing the rest if it’s not essential to the story. We’re not making porn as much as people think we are.”

Jessica Brown Findlay

The Downton Abbey alum told Radio Times in March 2013 that she was “naïve” when filming 2011’s Albatross, in which she pulls up her top to show her bare chest in one scene. “To be honest, Albatross was naivety and not knowing that I could say no. I had no idea what was going to happen and thought I was going to be shot from behind.”

Findlay did a nude scene in 2012’s Labyrinth, but told the outlet that she wouldn’t do it again. “In Labyrinth it is a very fleeting moment that we shot in one take, but I did find it very odd being naked in front of lots of people and I think it’s awful that women get so criticized about their bodies,” she explained. “I think if you’re going to do a nude scene, be honest and natural. Otherwise, I’d be starving myself forever, which I just couldn’t do! The idea that actresses would work out at the gym for a thousand hours beforehand … I was drinking pints and eating burgers. But actually, it’s not something I would do again.”

Natalie Portman

Portman spoke with MTV in March 2008 about the nudity she did in both Hotel Chevalier and Goya’s Ghosts, saying, “It was really silly.” She noted that she doesn’t “really have regrets” but she does have an issue with how the material is used after shooting. “I don’t like the misappropriation of stuff, like, when you create something as a part of a story and then a piece of it ends up on a porn site,” she said. “It’s meant to be a dramatic scene and part of a story. That really makes me angry. It’s inevitable and I should know what happens but …”

Emily Blunt

More than 10 years after baring it all in 2004’s My Summer of Love, Blunt revealed that she has no plans to go nude onscreen again. “Too racy would be one thing I wouldn’t do for now,” the English actress told The Telegraph in March 2016. “I’m not so keen on doing nudity, because I’m not 22 anymore. And, actually, it’s not so much a moral thing as, ‘I’ve done it before, and do I really want to do it again?’” When looking at new roles, she asks the question, “Does it serve the film or is it gratuitous and seeing someone’s tits for the sake of it?” She added: “Because I don’t think it’s necessary most of the time. Also playing violent or racist characters would be hard for me now.”

Kate Winslet

“I think I won’t [go nude again],” Winslet told Time magazine in 2009. “I can’t keep getting away with it. I don’t want to become ‘that actress who always gets her kit off.’” The British actress noted that “everyone always asks me about nudity because I guess I’ve taken my clothes off in almost every movie I’ve done. But in each case, the nudity has been there for a reason.”

Winslet, who has gone nude in more than nine films throughout her career, added: “Frankly, I hate every second. But I can’t stand seeing a film and thinking, ‘Why is that woman having sex in all her clothes?’ She should be naked.”

After taking off her clothes for 1997’s Titanic, when Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) draws her character Rose’s nude figure, Winslet admitted that she often gets asked to sign pictures of the movie drawing. “I don’t sign that [picture]. It feels very uncomfortable,” she told Yahoo! Movies in 2014. “It’s still haunting me.” Winslet later went nude for 2020’s Ammonite.

Mary Louise Parker

Parker played Nancy Botwin on eight seasons of Weeds. During her time as the series’ lead, she filmed a naked bathtub scene in season 4, which she later regretted. “I didn’t think I needed to be naked, and I fought with the director about it, and now I’m bitter,” she told More magazine in June 2010. “I knew it was going to be on the Internet: ‘Mary-Louise shows off her big nipples.’ I wish I hadn’t done that. I was goaded into it.” Parker, who did some graphic sex scenes for the Showtime series, noted that she is OK with those scenes as long as it’s not “crass and crude” just to get a laugh. “I like it the more extreme it is,” she told the magazine. “I don’t like it when it’s sentimental, when she’s a sweet mother. To me, she’s not that.”

Taylor Lautner

After taking his shirt off and showing off his rock-hard abs in 2009’s The Twilight Saga: New Moon, Lautner admitted that he wasn’t a big fan of being exposed. “I worked hard to get in shape for this role,” the actor told Showbiz Spy in October 2009. “My motivation was the movie and the fans, but I don’t want to become known as just a body. If I had to choose, I would never take my shirt off again in a movie, but I guess that’s not very realistic. I certainly won’t be asking to do it, though.”

Emilia Clarke

Clarke’s character on Game of Thrones, Daenerys, was often naked throughout the series, and in November 2019, the actress told Dax Shepard during an episode of his “Armchair Expert” podcast about what it was really like working on set. During the first season, she recalled thinking, “I have no idea what I’m doing. I have no idea what any of this is. … I’ve been on a film set twice before then, and now I’m on a film set, completely naked, with all of these people — and I don’t know what I’m meant to do.” The English actress noted that she didn’t know what was “expected” of her at that point in her career, adding she was 22 years old when she was cast. “Regardless of whether there’d be nudity or not, I would have spent that first season thinking, I’m not worthy of requiring anything,” she added. “I’m not worthy of needing anything at all.”

The Last Christmas actress explained that she was lucky that her onscreen partner, Jason Momoa, was so kind and protective of her during her time on the HBO series. “Jason had experience. He was an experienced actor who had done a bunch of stuff before coming on to this,” she recalled. “He was, like, ‘Sweetie, this is how it’s meant to be, and this is how it’s not meant to be, and I’m gonna make sure that that’s the f–king case.’ He was so kind and considerate and cared about me as a human being.”

Helen Mirren

“I’ve always had a problem doing nudity,” Mirren told Venice magazine in 2005. “I hated it! I hated the fact that I hated it, however. It’s never a comfortable thing. I’ve never enjoyed it, ever. It’s always mortifying.” The British actress has gone nude in many of her films, but noted, “I always felt it was something I should get over, as well. I might seem uninhibited but believe me I’m not! I’ve just never thought it was necessary, ever.”

The Queen actress explained that when sex and nudity is done in an “adult or poetic way” it can be “wonderful,” but she still isn’t jumping at the chance to do those types of scenes. “I didn’t want to be uptight, and I also always told myself ‘It’s OK, because you work in the theater, so you’re not going to get stuck with it,’” she added. “But of course, I have gotten stuck with it, in a way!”